My Trip to France
Then Benoit drove us to the Place de la Concorde and we walked through the Tuileries Gardens towards the Louvre. We ate hot-dogs in baguettes covered in French cheese. If only American hot-dogs were served that way! It was another lovely day and all the people were out enjoying the sun around the fountains and amongst the trees and tulips. The Louvre was breathtaking I the sunshine. We first explored the ancient underground foundations of the old Louvre that had been discovered during the Pyramid project. A gorgeous model of the original Louvre was featured and you walked through the actual moat at the walls and saw small parts of the castle itself near the top. Then you were able to walk inside the castle walls into the interior moat that encircled the prison tower kept in the center. Truly an amazing find and really well preserved.PARIS: THE GRANDEUR OF ART AND ARCHITECTURE The Splendor of the Louvre
Then we walked through the Egyptian wing, some of which was housed inside rooms that had the phenomenal wall and ceiling décor from the original days of the palace. Such luxury and opulence you cannot image. I have never seen such enormous paintings - the ceilings were arched and trimmed with ornate moldings and décor. We traveled around the large square of the Louvre and through the furniture wing. We entered the Richelieu wing and had a small sandwich and wine on the café, which is housed on the balcony overlooking the courtyard. The Napoleon Apartments were closed (on Thursdays) so I had to satisfy myself with pictures from a book and Frank's descriptions - they are something to see on my next trip!
We enjoyed walking through the hug open courtyards filled with many extraordinary statues from France and around the world. My favorites were the copper statue of Hercules I think fighting the serpent, and the man who was fighting the lion who was biting him. Many of the female statues were so lovely. There was a wondrous lion. There were so many statues! I felt like I was in the White Witch's garden in the Narnia! We continued around through the Iran galleries and through more examples of rooms that had the original decorations on the walls and ceilings. Many unbelievably large paintings and a huge white marble fireplace covered with life-sized statues.
Then we ended our journey at the three most famous pieces. First,
the Venus de Milo. More beautiful of course in person that any picture
of her. She was mesmerizing and the crowd around her waxed and waned
but was always full of people murmuring their awe at her loveliness.
The audio guide told us where they thought the positions of her arms would
be and you could just see her complete in your mind. I took many
photos but they did not turn out as well as I had hoped. You cannot
capture the 3-dimensional beautiful of that piece of art on a flat photo.
The turn of her head the lines of the form, you had to walk around and
around. 
Then
we found the Winged Victory standing in all of her glory at the landing
at the great staircase, what a fitting location!!! WOW! Probably
my favorite piece of all. What incredible majesty, what wonder!
Those wings, the ship, you could almost see the proud uplifted head and
brow with her hair streaming behind her in the wind. Oh to find that
glorious head and reunite it with her frame. The flowing lines of
her robes, the immensity of her! She was riveting.
And then, as the museum was getting ready to close we slipped in to see the Mona Lisa. Luckily for me, this time there were no lines and we were not shuffled past her, there was time to look and listen. I never knew she was grieving over the loss of her four year old daughter and suddenly I saw the look in her eye come to life for me - you could see what she was thinking and how moved he must have been by her presence. No wonder he kept her with him always. It is in the eyes I think, although the smile takes a hold of you, the eyes and the look is what haunts you.
We had been told that if you were to spend only 1 minute in front of each work of art at the Louvre - it would take you 4 months to see it all. Certainly true, it is a place to spend your life returning too.
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